


Escape, or the Siege of Arkanis from the point of view of Armitage Hux (5, scared)

by Flyting



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hux and Techie are brothers, Kid Fic, Kid Hux makes a stormtrooper friend, The Techie is very slight, This Is Why Hux Has Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 11:55:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8843884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flyting/pseuds/Flyting
Summary: “Two-four, shut that kid up-“
 The little shuttle rocks and trembles in the atmosphere as something explodes far beneath them. “Hey, what’s your name, little guy? Huh? What’s your name?” The Stormtrooper asks.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This goes with Blood is Thicker, but all you need to know to understand this one is that Hux and Clan Techie are brothers.

“Hey, hey, hey- little guy- it’s okay, it’s okay-“  
  
The Stormtrooper who has been holding him bounces his knee. Armitage’s voice wobbles tearfully as he’s jostled, and his cries trail off into a whine. He had started off howling for his mother, and then his brother, and now he was just screaming.  
  
_“Two-four, shut that kid up-“_

The little shuttle rocks and trembles in the atmosphere as something explodes far beneath them.

“Hey, what’s your name, little guy? Huh? What’s your name?” The Stormtrooper asks.

It takes a few deep, hitching breaths before he can answer. “A- armie…” he hiccups.

“Artie?”  
  
“ _Armie_ ,“ he repeats, louder to be heard over the rumble of the engines and the distant sounds of blaster fire. Bren would be proud of him, talking to a stranger. But Bren wasn’t there- where was Bren? Where was Bren? Where-

“Armie, huh? That’s a good name. We’re taking you to your dad, Armie, okay? Do you want to go see your dad?”  
  
Armitage nods and hiccups again from the effort of holding in his tears. Yes, he wanted his dad. He was tall and big and everyone had to do what he said, and sometimes he picked Armitage up and let him sit on his shoulders, and Armitage felt so _tall_. Everything was safe when he was around. Daddy would make the shaking and the loud noises stop. 

“What about Bren?”

Bren was the favorite because he was _Brendol_ just like daddy, but that was okay because Armitage was Bren’s favorite. Armitage had never been to visit daddy without Bren. They always went together. Mama would bring them with her sometimes to the big school where she worked and daddy was always there. He would let them run around in the garden if it wasn't raining. Last year he came for their birthday and brought them both pieces of sticky orange candy that had gummed Armie's mouth shut.

“Bren? Is that your brother?” the Stormtrooper asks.

Armitage nods.

“ _Armie, no_!” _Bren had said from his hiding spot in the closet. Armitage had been hiding with Bren, but he couldn’t hear what mama was saying to the soldiers, so he crawled out of the closet and hid under the bed instead._

“ _They’re not here,”_ _Mama was arguing with somebody, sounding furious._ “ _They’re gone, I sent them away, so you can just tell him-“_  
  
_And then a voice Armie didn't recognize. “Republic fighters incoming in six. The captain says to move it, he’s not waiting around.” There was a sound of things breaking and Mama was shouting._

 _The Republic was coming._ He'd heard those words before. Adults liked to whisper them, like they were something he wasn't supposed to hear. Armitage thinks that maybe _republic_ is a bad word, because sometimes daddy let them sit in his office and draw while he talked to people on the holorecorder on his desk, and that was the way he said it. Like a bad word.

Armitage must have made a noise or something because they found him then, pulled him out from under the bed and Armitage had _screamed_.  
  
“ _Where’s the other one?”_  
  
_“No time, we have to go!”_

The nice Stormtrooper, the one who was talking to him, had tossed him over his shoulder. The hard plates of his armor had dug into Armitage’s stomach as they ran, and made him want to throw up. Up ahead, a man had started shouting at them until one of the other Stormtroopers had knocked him out of their way. He fell and hit the street, and when Armitage went past there was blood on the man's face. All around him people were shouting, running, throwing things out of windows because the Republic was coming. 

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” the Stormtrooper says quietly. “Your mom will take care of him.”

Armitage doesn’t understand why Mama couldn’t take care of _him_ too. Why was he going to daddy and Bren staying with mama? They were never, ever, ever apart.  
  
The shuttle rocks and Armie nearly slips out of the Stormtrooper’s lap. _“That was close, he’s right on our tail-“_  
  
_“We need some backup over here!”_  
  
_“Two more Republic fighters incoming.”_  
  
This was wrong, they should be together. What if the Republic got Bren? What if they got him? What if-

“Hey little guy- Armie, hey-“ the Stormtrooper says, dragging Armitage’s attention away from the pilots. “What do you do for fun?”

“I... like to draw,” Armitage forces himself to say, “Or mama reads to us. Or if it doesn’t rain we go outside-”  
  
The pilot is babbling and Armitage digs his short fingers into the chinks in the Stormtrooper’s armor to keep from being spilled onto the floor as the ship jerks back and forth.  
  
“ _Get behind him!”_  
  
_“One more, we’re almost through-“_  
  
“Yeah? Hey, what else?” the Stormtrooper asks, sounding very interested.  
  
Armitage is running out of things to talk about. Normally Bren does the talking for both of them. Then he remembers, “We petted Tessa’s babies. They were soft.”  
  
"Yeah? I bet that was fun."  
  
"I was scared but Bren wasn't."

He had only been scared at first, because the neighbor’s loth-cat Tessa had sharp teeth and her babies might too, they might _bite_ , but then Bren had stretched out a hand and brushed his fingers over one’s back and just giggled. Bren was always the brave one.

_“Go on, Armie. They’re just babies.”_

The little orange and black kit had purred under his hand. It felt like a warm, fuzzy ball.

The computer finally stops beeping, and the pilots stop shouting at each other. He hadn’t realized how loud it was inside the shuttle until it stops.

" _Set to r_ _endezvous with the commandant's shuttle in four-"  
_

He hopes Tessa’s babies are okay. But if mama was taking care of Bren then Tessa would probably take care of them.

For a long time the only sound is the shuttle's engine. Armitage wants to ask how long it's going to be until the Republic is gone and he can go back with Mama and Bren, but before he can, the Stormtrooper asks, "So is Bren your big brother?"

“Bren is my _twin_ brother,” Armitage informs the Stormtrooper. “That means we’re the same.”

“A twin huh? I have some of those too.”

“More than one?” He's never met anybody else who had a twin.

“Try a couple of _million_.”

Armitage blinks. He’s glad the shuttle has stopped shaking. “That’s too many.”

He can’t even count that high. Hopefully they didn’t all sleep in the same bed, like him and Bren did.

The Stormtrooper laughs and for the first time Armitage isn’t scared.


End file.
